Owing to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid increase in the number of international higher education students, online academic programmes have become more centralised and became the main, sometimes only, form of education. Although the online environment offers flexible access to education, it can cause concerns and difficulties for both international students and the host universities as they may not be well informed of each other's expectations. This can make transition extremely challenging and a major cause of anxiety for international students. Thus, this study conceptually discusses the gaps between the expectations held by lecturers in host universities and their international students about the extent of self-navigated online learning. In the current forms of course coordination, international students may have both frustration and cognitive overloads due to the many challenges associated with studying in a foreign university. It is recommended, therefore, for universities to provide better support for newly arrived international students in terms of helping them navigate online learning requirements in the initial stages, while encouraging the students to take greater responsibility for self-navigating their own online learning.