Academic collaboration isn’t automatic – here’s how to make it work

Collaboration is central to academic life. In education research, questions about how to improve learning and design useful technologies that support diverse learners at scale require multiple forms of expertise. Yet collaboration is often treated as if it should happen naturally. Bring smart people together, identify a promising topic and good work will follow. My experience working with researchers, institutional leaders, technologists, students, staff, external partners and international scholars has taught me that this is rarely enough.

Be ambitious, but make the goal concrete

Strong collaborations often begin with a bold idea. As a meaningful problem comes into focus, it leads to the question “What if we approached this differently?” Bold ideas create energy, attract expertise and help people see why the work matters.

But ambition must be paired with clarity. A goal such as “improve student learning” is inspiring, but not yet actionable. Teams need to ask: what specific problem are we solving? Who is affected by it? Why does it matter now? What would progress look like?

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Create a one-page collaboration brief with the core problem, purpose, expected outputs, audience, timeline and next steps. This helps collaborators clarify how technical, analytical or educational research tasks connect to the larger purpose. It also gives the team a shared reference point for aligning priorities and responsibilities as the project evolves.

Turn different perspectives into shared contributions

Interdisciplinary collaboration can be slow because people see the same issue through different lenses. That can be frustrating, but it is also the main reason to collaborate.

Consider a team developing a new tool for teaching. A learning scientist may ask whether an intervention is guided by a clear theory of learning. A faculty member may ask whether it can work within a real course schedule. A web developer may ask what users will need to navigate it easily. These questions may pull the project in different directions, but they also improve it. 

To make this happen, teams should understand what expertise their collaborators bring and use their answers to map the work. Identify the project’s major needs, clarify where each person’s expertise fits, and note any remaining gaps. When gaps appear, bring in the right expertise, adjust the scope or allow time to learn. Then assign responsibilities based on both expertise and goals, so each person has a clear contribution and a reason to engage with others’ work. Revisit this map as the project evolves because new needs will emerge and roles may shift. 

Build project management into the scholarly process

Collaborative research is both intellectual and operational. A manuscript may require a literature review, theoretical framing, data cleaning, analysis, interpretation and revision and editing. A grant proposal may add budget planning, partner coordination and institutional approvals. Once more than one person is involved, the work also depends on different schedules, disciplinary expectations and levels of availability.

So, project management skills should be treated as necessary to the scholarly process, not as administrative work separate from it. They create a clear structure that helps protect the quality of the ideas. Teams should agree on deadlines, assign ownership for each task, create shared folders, use consistent version-control practices and document major decisions. Even a brief meeting note that lists what was decided, who is responsible and what happens next can prevent confusion later.

When collaborators know what has been decided, what they are responsible for and how their contribution fits into the scholarly goal, they can spend more energy thinking deeply and less energy reconstructing the work.

Create a respectful space for honest disagreement

Effective collaboration is not about finding people who always agree. It is about creating conditions for people with different expertise, values and responsibilities to do meaningful work together. People need to feel able to raise concerns, question assumptions and disagree constructively. This is especially important in teams with differences in seniority, discipline, language or culture.

International collaboration has taught me to pay attention not only to what people contribute, but also to how they are accustomed to contributing. Visiting scholars and international experts may bring different communication norms, expectations about hierarchy, approaches to feedback or assumptions about how decisions are made. Respecting these differences means creating conditions where people can participate without feeling dismissed or misunderstood. To surface these differences, discussing collaboration norms early and intentionally can be helpful.

Leaders can create a respectful space in practical ways. Set expectations early that disagreement is part of improving the work, not a sign of conflict. Use structured turn-taking in meetings that gives everyone a chance to contribute. Share drafts or decisions in advance so collaborators who need more time to process or reflect can respond thoughtfully. It also helps to create multiple feedback channels. Some concerns are easier to raise in a shared document, a small-group conversation or a one-on-one check-in than in a large meeting.

Collaboration is a practice

The most productive collaborations I have experienced are ambitious but focused. They value diverse perspectives, make deadlines visible and create safe conditions for honest input. Working with experts from diverse fields can lead to more creative solutions, broader perspectives and more innovative research.

The goal is not simply to collaborate more. It is to collaborate better.

Jonna Lee is director of research in education innovation in the College of Lifetime Learning at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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