Make a project more engaging

The struggle here as I see it is that you've been asked to create a webinar without creating a webinar.

I get the impression that what you're really making is a video (passive) to look like it was a recorded webinar (also passive).

In my opinion, a true webinar is very engaging because it is happening live and participants are interacting in the chat, responding to polls, screen sharing, using voice communications, etc. They are actively involved with what is going on.

It is nice to go back and watch a recorded webinar if you missed it but also missing is all of the engagement... the chat is no longer live, the polls are over, you cannot share your thoughts with others via chat or voice... it becomes just another passive video with hopefully a decent presenter that keeps you from falling asleep. At this point you are just watching and absorbing.

You stated that people said your project looks like a PowerPoint rather than an interactive video which would imply that the stakeholders wish for something interactive but then you also stated that it needs to be delivered without interaction from the learner. Here lies the conflict. You can't have interaction without interaction.

I think the project team needs to better define the terms and scope of the project for clarity. What is exactly meant by engaging? If there is to be no interaction from the learner - does this mean it just looks better graphically or has some animations to provide a bit of "WOW" factor? As far as a recorded webinar goes (passive video), I agree with Lieve, it is only going to be as engaging as the presenter. Graphics and animations can help if timed properly with the audio but if you are using any sort of text to speech, you would have lost me in the first 10 seconds.

You can read this post, which I created after a webinar for starters with Captivate interactions. This is based on that presentation, which means it is really more like PPT.

http://blog.lilybiri.com/interactivity-in-captivate-back-to-basics

By interactive video (which is a specific term explained in the previous link) you probably mean a fully interactive cptx, published to HTML5? Basic is: give as much control as possible to the learner, never force the learner (as too often happens) to do something but allow freedom to explore in any sequence, with some engaging knowledge check tests (not necessarily boring MCQ but think about games, gamificiation elements). Audio is very important. You don't need real professional voice over talents, but the tone of the audio is important, cannot be boring. Try to invoke emotions, empathy, reflections. Show what can lead to failures, bad practice (too often ignored) instead of just typical workflows. Arouse curiosity, use story telling. Be not afraid of telling about personal positive and negative experiences.

All what I wrote before is what you need in any type of training. Problem is that this is a lot more difficult to realize in an asynchronous setting (eLearning course) than in live F2F training. But even in the live training it is too often not the case as you also may have experienced in your formal education career. Remember those teachers which you still have in your memory and reflect why they 'remained' while others have disappeared.