@wifethecompany,
I don't think this would be a great idea to allow participants/Students to create new forums.
This is totally handled by BBpress plugin and there is a certain limit to create forums.
You can allow users to create forums if you give them the capability to do so, or create a new bbPress role for them to default as so that they can all create forums.
To assign roles to the user so they can create the forums, go to wp-admin > users > All users > Edit the user and assign user role for the forums
Refer:
http://prntscr.com/kr6wie
But, I suggest you create a forum which should be the public forum and not connected to any course. it should be just a chit-chat forum