Ronald L. Jacobs, Ph.D. (Indiana University, 1980) is a professor of Workforce Development and Education at the Ohio State University, US. Dr. Jacobs also serves as Director of the Center on Education and Training for Employment.  Dr. Jacobs is a frequent contributor to the human resource development scholarly literature, having written nearly 100 journal articles and book chapters and four books on different areas of human resource development, including the systems theory foundations of human resource development, employee development, and structured on-the-job training (S-OJT).  Most recently, Dr. Jacobs has written on institutionalizing organizational change and cascade training. 

Dr. Jacobs is particularly known for his research and development work on structured on-the-job training, a term that he first introduced to the human resource development literature in 1987. He is the author of the book, Structured On-the-Job Training: Unleashing Employee Expertise in the Workplace (2003, 2^nd edition), which has become the standard guide to help managers, quality engineers, and human resource development staff implement this training approach in organizations.  

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